It's March and you know what that means! It's time for AEW's first PPV of 2026, Revolution. This here is a stacked AF lineup....
Revolution is almost always one of the best PPVs of the year, no doubt partly because there's a two-plus month gap in AEW's PPV schedule beforehand. Thus there's plenty of time to build a strong show full of meaningful matches. As much as I tend to love AEW's PPV events, I wouldn't necessarily be sad if they cut the schedule from nine a year to eight, just to spread the April-December schedule out a bit more.
Anyway, Revolution has ten main card matches scheduled, plus apparently a Big Boom AJ appearance (Wikipedia lists it as a match with opponent TBA, but WON's website says "appearance"), though I can't remember it ever being mentioned on Dynamite. There are also two big pre-show matches, both for championships. This roster is massive, isn't it?
AEW's signed another slew of excellent talent over the last few months. Andrade (who's doing the best work of his career thus far), Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors, Lena Kross, Tommaso Ciampa, and now David Finlay (who everyone expected to go to WWE, but WWE were gonna stick him in developmental, or as it's now known, Hard Cam Academy). It's an embarrassment of riches to be sure, and it's always dangerous to sign more wrestlers than you have room for, but man is there a fuckton of great talent in AEW right now...
I've got a bone to pick with Tony though. Why THE FUCK did you have to put this show head-to-head with the Oscars?? Couldn't it have been the night before? Or during the afternoon? I get that it's in L.A. and would have to start at like noon, but goddammit. Looks like I'll have to wait till Monday evening to watch this, which means a 24-hour media blackout a la Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother.
Anyway let's get to the predictions...
Zero Hour AEW National Championship Blackjack Battle Royal
So is this the same as a Casino Battle Royal? Did they change the name? I assume it's the same rules since it's 21 guys. Thus far the only names announced are the champion Ricochet and Tommaso Ciampa, but Mark Briscoe's gotta be a lock for it since he and Ciampa are feuding. And Jack Perry is still chasing Ricochet so he'll be in it too. A title change in this type of match would be weird so I'll go with Ric to retain.
Pick: Ricochet retains
Zero Hour TBS Championship: Willow Nightingale vs. Lena Kross
Very interested to see how Kross is in the ring, I've never seen her wrestle but man does she have the It Factor. Just an absolute presence as far as her look and the way she carries herself. If her matches and promos deliver, she could be a massive breakout star. Anyway, these two are pulling double duty, with the Women's Tag belts up for grabs on the main card. I'm guessing they split wins, with Willow retaining the singles belt and Lena and Megan Bayne winning the tag belts later.
Pick: Willow retains
Women's Tag Team Championship: Babes of Wrath vs. Megan Bayne & Lena Kross
And that brings us here. Kross is potentially a huge (no pun intended) upgrade from Penelope Ford (no disrespect to Penelope); Megan and Lena could be the female equivalent of the Skyscrapers in the NWA, except with way more talent (and twice the brains of Sid). Give them the tag belts and make them the most dominant team on the roster. Ford's injury could be a blessing in disguise. Question is, what do you call this new team? MegaKross? Meh. The She-scrapers? Silly. Big Bad Bitches? Nah. Twin Titans? That's not bad.
Pick: I'm going with Twin Titans
Trios Championship: Kazuchika Okada/Kyle Fletcher/Mark Davis vs. JetSpeed & Mistico
Goddamn, this'll be a lot of fun. I love this new Trios Championship....well, trio, of Okada, Fletcher and Davis. They should defend often and win often. Fletcher and Speedball have incredible chemistry together and I could watch them fight all day long. Kevin Knight has been absolutely shining lately and I love that he's becoming a star. The Callis guys just won these belts so they're keeping them obviously.
Pick: Protokadavis retains
Tornado Tag: Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy/Roderick Strong vs. The Dogs
Not crazy about just calling Finlays' crew The Dogs, feels too short and generic. Needs another word to replace "war." Anyway this feud has already yielded some damn fine matches and this will be no exception. Darby will go to great lengths to injure himself, The Dogs will get lots of time to shine, Roddy will break everyone's back, OC will make us laugh. What's not to like? The heels just won on Dynamite so I think Team Darby pulls out the win here.
Pick: Darby/OC/Roddy
Toni Storm vs. Marina Shafir
This is kind of a tough one to pick. Toni has two wins over Marina, one by DQ, but I feel like Toni kind of needs a win here to put her back in the Women's Title picture, since she and Mina Shirakawa don't seem to be going for the tag belts anymore. With a heel as the current champ, they need babyface challengers for Thekla. But it's also rare they have someone go 3-0 in a major feud, so this one could go either way. Maybe it won't be the blowoff and Marina wins here, then Toni wins at Dynasty or something? Then again, everyone is banned from ringside and that usually favors the babyface.
Pick: It's a coin flip for me, but I'll go with Toni I guess
Andrade El Idolo vs. Bandido
This one could steal the show. Holy jeezballs. These two have never faced each other and both are fantastic workers. Andrade has been one of the great pleasant surprises in AEW lore. What a turnaround from his 2023 run. Just sit back and marvel at the fireworks.
Pick: Andrade
Swerve Strickland vs. Brody King
Love the choice to turn Swerve heel again. The babyface side was getting very crowded and Swerve was already going back to dark places as a character. Great timing to have him annihilate Kenny Omega and set up a rematch there. Brody King's push has been something fresh, and I'm loving the "Fuck ICE" chants he elicits. I think Swerve probably wins here, but King could pull off the upset too.
Pick: Swerve
Continental Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita
These two guys are basically babyfaces in heel stables, which is an unusual dynamic. Their previous match went to the time limit, thus this one will be free of such a constraint. Both guys want to have a definitive winner, to the point that KT refused to attack Mox on Dynamite to soften him up. This should be great and should go at least 21 minutes. I think KT wins the belt here and eventually sets up a unification match with Okada.
Pick: Takeshita
AEW Women's World Championship 2 out of 3 Falls: Thekla vs. Kris Statlander
I love me some 2/3 Falls matches. It's a great old-fashioned traditional wrestling stip. Thekla and Kris have wrestled twice before, and both matches have been very good. This one should top them. Thekla could drop the title right back to Kris here, which would maybe set up Kris vs. a returning Mercedes, but I could also see Toni win the belt from Thekla and lose it to Mercedes at All In. I think that one is more likely.
Pick: Thekla retains
AEW Tag Team Championship: FTR vs. Young Bucks
Crazy that it's been almost two years since these two teams wrestled each other (aside from the three-way match with The Acclaimed at All In 2024). FTR-Bucks always delivers and this will be no exception in the Jacksons' hometown. MOTY candidate comin' up.
Pick: Bucks recapture the belts
AEW Men's World Championship Texas Death Match: MJF vs. Hangman Adam Page
Soooo, they're doing the Cody Rhodes thing again, where if Page loses here he can never again challenge for the AEW Title. Quite a "paint yourself into a corner" situation, and it seems like most are predicting he comes up short. I think that's a terrible mistake, regardless how the aftermath plays out. If he never challenges for the belt again you're making the same error you did with Cody, where the crowd loses interest in him as a babyface character. You could turn him heel and have him go back on his word, but then you're cheapening the stipulation just like WWE does all the time. Or you could have him as a babyface go through some other stip that undoes this one. I don't like either scenario. If you're gonna have him lose here, you'd better have a really damn clever way out of it, one that honors the stip somehow. I'm honestly not even sure what that would look like. You also don't want to end a third consecutive PPV with a cheap heel win, particularly one that makes Hanger look like a chump. Then there's the question of future challengers. If MJF keeps the title he's got a pretty limited slate of babyfaces to work with till Ospreay gets back. Basically Omega and Brody, and maybe Darby. Hanger on the other hand would have Andrade, Okada, Swerve, Fletcher, and he could even face Omega since they've never had a rematch from Full Gear 2021. To me it just makes sense for Hangman to win back the belt and keep it until All In, where he can lose it to a returning Ospreay, or if Will isn't ready yet, they could do Page-Omega or Page-Swerve. Way too big an upside to Page winning this one, way too much of a downside to him losing.
Pick: Page
This here is one helluva loaded show and will likely go at least 4.5 hours, and could win lots of PPV of the Year awards in nine months. AEW's in a really good place creatively and their momentum can be felt in the crowd reactions and slowly improving attendance. Revolution will outsell last year's show and I suspect the PPV buyrate will be better too. Great time to be an AEW fan....
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